Where would you go: MICHIGAN or UCLA?

I have a GREAT life in LA (boyfriend, great friends, great weather, connections, etc...), UCLA has some AMAZING faculty members, and, when I sat in on classes, I felt like I fit in a lot better at UCLA.

That all said, MICHIGAN IS MICHIGAN. Judges know it (even the ones on the Supreme Court) and THEY'VE GOT AN AMAZING NUMBER OF FACULTY WHO ARE LEADERS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE FIELDS. It has been a DREAM of mine to someday clerk for the Supreme Court--I'm well aware of how unrealistic that may be--and Michigan has SC clerks almost every year whereas UCLA has only had 4 in its history. Also, Michigan is a THRIVING academic community where people are just as obsessed with school as I am. Of course, I HATE ANN ARBOR!

But let me say this about the Supreme Court thing ... sometimes you have to reconcile your hopes/ dreams/ vision of your future with reality and the priorities you have in your life as it is. The plain and simple fact is that the cards are stacked against you getting a supreme court clerkship no matter where you go. You will have to excel not just in the classroom but as a member of a law journal and probably as an appellate clerk as well. If you have what it takes the difference between Mich and UCLA is not going to be difficult to overcome.Not to mention that I have heard a great deal about how several prominent members of UCLAs faculty have been actively urging promising students towards academia. Get a seminar with Volokh, get a sweet LOR to clerk for the 9th and then jump up to SCOTUS. See, doable!

Also, I saw a thread on XO last week titled "PSA: WLRK OCIing at UCLA this year." Just putting that out there. Nevermind "T14" ... UCLA is one of the elite law schools in this nation. Go and be happy.

Yeah, the only think that makes 1L tolerable are a) being able to go outside, and b) having friends. So I liked it at UCLA. Normally I would tell people in your situation to go to Michigan, but I dunno. What do you want to do besides SCOTUS? Did you go to loyola for undergrad?

go to UCLA - previous posters had it exactly right when they said that spending 3 years in Ann Arbor, bitching about it, won't make you happy (and probably make you less academically successful), also you won't make friends that way. Seriously, you want UCLA, just take it in the chin and take the TINY prestige bump down and go on and live your happy bunny life with your boyfriend, friends, connections, etc etc.

you don't want to be the girl that people wonder, "why in the hell is she here, if she hates it so much here."